In recent weeks, the spotlight has been on the Magisterial Spill, not precisely because of a positive event. Via supreme decree, the Executive imposed modifications on its board of directors, increasing its members to 13 and submitting its composition to a universal election. Likewise, it reduced the amount of contributions from its affiliates, measures that, in the long term, will benefit the teachers of the Fenatep –union founded in 2017, although with a recycled name, by the president peter castle– and other groups of teachers who will have a say in the election of the new board of directors.
This is not a minor detail, because throughout the history of the Teacher Spill these groups, mostly followers of Sendero Luminoso and its political and trade union fronts such as the Movadef and Conare-Sute, have tried to take control of the entity.
Even after Pedro Castillo came to power, Fenatep managed to formalize it expressly, when Iber Maraví – singled out by Senderistas as a former member of the terrorist group – was head of the Ministry of Labor and Employment Promotion. In previous years they requested this procedure, without success.
The beginnings of the Spill
The Unitary Union of Workers in Education of Peru (Sutep) has been in charge of the administration of the Teacher Spill since the 1980s.
The former Minister of Education, Idel Vexlerwho joined during his teaching life, recalled that the institution was created approximately in 1965, at the request of teachers under State management.
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After 20 years of precarious and irregular operation in the hands of the Ministry of Education, in 1982 it was declared bankrupt and in 1984, during the Government of Fernando Belaunde Terry, it was handed over to the teachers’ unions of that time: Sutep and the sidesp.
“They say that he had no more than S/50 of liquidity at the time of the transition. From there the Spill began to walk. To date, it has more than S/2,500 million in assets and 280,000 affiliates. From the Congress, the professors of the Fenatep have tried to touch the funds of the Spill with bills, because they see it as loot”, lamented Vexler, commenting on the interventionist decree of the Executive.
The fight of the sutep
The general secretary of Sutep, Lucio Castrorecalled that in the last 36 years, the followers of Sendero have tried to infiltrate the Spill on more than one occasion.
“To remove Sutep, they created several organizations. First Conare-Movadef was born, which had to change its name because the direct link to Sendero affected them. One of its first variants was the Conare-Sute, which took its name to confuse the guild with the regional bases of the Sutep”, he counted.
He said that like these “unions” had in their bases principles of “popular struggle” They never managed to register with the MTPE. “The Fenatep was born from there, and it is this Government that, hand in hand with people linked to Sendero, has strengthened them”, he asserted.
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Analysis: “The interests behind are others”
By Juan Cadillo // Former Minister of Education
La Derrama Magisterial is a private entity that little by little has been consolidating. Teachers have doubled their contributions and the vast majority are satisfied with the management of their funds.
However, throughout its history, there has always been a struggle for this money. There are unions parallel to Sutep, Fenatep for example, which today has the support of the Government, and other smaller ones that aspire to access management positions in Spill. Due to this situation, President Pedro Castillo said that his decree represented the “democratization” of the Spill, but the reality is that the interests behind it are others. Any teacher cannot be a director, there is a technical management that is supported by the good administration of funds, a fact recognized even by the SBS.
That a president or minister breaks this legal framework implies that another will come later who will also make the changes that they see fit, and we would enter into a cyclical problem of each minister changing the statutes of a private entity at will.
Keep in mind
- The decree of the Executive modifies 16 articles of the statute of the Spill. One of the changes promotes the free disaffiliation of teachers so that they withdraw all their funds.
- Last Friday, the plenary session of Congress exonerated a project to repeal the questioned decree from the commission process. However, the session ended without it being put to a vote.
- On July 21, Sutep will carry out a nationwide mobilization in protest against Pedro Castillo’s unfulfilled offers to his sector.
- “In Peru, all teachers know that Fenatep’s dream was always to reach the Spill”, said Idel Vexler, former Minister of Education.
